Abylai Kansher

Abylai Kansher (in Kazakh, Qanisher Abylai) lived at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries and was a sultan of the Kazakh Khanate from the Genghisid line. His father was Uali Sultan, his grandfather Jangir Khan and his great-grandfather Esim Khan. The exact years of his life are unknown; sources give only the late 17th and early 18th century.

He was first called Abylai-Zholbarys. The nickname Kansher, which means “bloodthirsty” in Kazakh, is linked by genealogical tradition to the killing of Khan Kayip, who had ruled the Kazakhs from 1715. According to these accounts, in 1718, amid defeats in the war with the Dzungars, Abylai killed Kayip Khan in Turkestan with the support of the batyrs of the Middle Zhuz. Killing a khan was a rare event in Kazakh politics, and the descendants of Esim Khan through Syrdak Sultan remained hostile to Abylai.

Staying among the Kazakhs became dangerous, and Abylai left with his family and followers for Urgench in the Khanate of Khiva. His later fate is not described in the sources available.

His son Korkem Uali Sultan was the father of Abilmansur, the future Ablai Khan, who was named after his grandfather. Ablai Khan’s secretary M. Mamedov wrote in a 1768 memorandum that the khan’s grandfather and father had been “khans of the city of Tashkent”; other sources do not confirm this. Information on Abylai Kansher is sparse and partly contradictory, so many details of his life remain disputed by historians.